


Manic Panic

by BIFF1



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Brendol Hux is a terrible parent, Fluff, Grandpa Hux might be fine, Like super fluff, M/M, Mutual Pinning, Pink hair, Romance?, nonironic use of How do I love thee, they aren't very good at communicating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 20:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7984597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BIFF1/pseuds/BIFF1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux wants to dye his hair. A little rebellion against his father and he brings his best friend Ben along to help. It's only fair since he had helped dye that mess of hair on several occasions. He just didn't expect for some cotton candy pink hair to alter their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Manic Panic

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a short drabble for @smol-hux. Nine pages later here we are. Come visit me on tumble @biffbang if you'd like my inbox is rather sad.

"All these are the same color." Hux grumbled picking up a box of sweet cola black, "It's all the same black." He sighed putting the box back down on the shelf with a heavy sigh.

 

"Why black? You want to match?" Ben asked behind him, leaning against a shelf, fluffing his jet black hair, "That's so sweet gingersnap."

 

"You know that's not why." He hisses picking up midnight in the garden of good and evil before deciding it looks too close to Ben's hair.

 

"Actually I don't know why. You were waiting on my bike when I finished practice and told me to take you to a drug store." He shrugs fingering the boxes along the shelf next to him, "I kind of thought we were here for condoms." Hux looks back at him at that. He's shyly looking at him sidelong, a blush high on his cheeks.

 

Hux turns very determinedly towards the obnoxious blonde tones to keep his matching blush from him. They aren't dating but everyone seems to think they are. And that was the first he had heard of Ben maybe wanted to have sex with him. Hux isn't at all averse to the idea. He'd actually been thinking of it a lot lately. Ever since Ben had started driving him places on the back of his motorcycle. Where they were pressed tight together, the thrum of the engine vibrating through him.

 

"My father made some rather rude comments about..." About us, "me. And if he thinks I'm a disgrace now then I'm going to show him a disgrace."

 

"Armie... Isn't your grandfather coming to stay with you?"

 

"Yes, father is picking him up at the airport after work tonight." The venom in his tone is something strange, a strange hateful excitement. Like he has a terrible plan and it's all coming together.

 

"Then maybe this?" Ben leans over him and grabs a jar off the shelf.

 

"Manic panic... It's pink." He turns to look at him and Ben is dangerously close to him, "Do you, do you think it'll look good?"

 

"Yeah... Yeah I do." There is something soft and deep and scary in the taller boy's tone that causes Hux's heart to feel dangerously close to exploding.

 

He buys the pink dye and a pack of those mouthwash strips. Ben smiling smugly next to him.

 

Hux had helped dyed Ben's hair several times since he'd transferred but he had never really realised what he insisted on Hux doing it for him when he knew damn well that he'd been dying it himself before.

 

He understand now, sitting in his bathroom while Kylo's strong fingers work the dye into his hair. It's not sexual exactly but it feels intimate. They talk in low voices about nothing and Hux tries his best not to make any noises that might ruin the moment. He's sure that Ben can see him biting his lips in the mirror but he can't bring himself to look directly at him.

 

Ben is the first real friend he's had, possibly ever. In his last school, a private almost militant academy he had been pushed and pushed to do better than everyone. He hadn't had time for anyone else. That should have been the case here as well but they had just gravitated towards each other.

 

They sit beside each other, legs touching, and wait for the stinging to get bad enough to abort this crazy mission or for the timer on Ben’s phone to go off.

 

“Do you want me to stay for dinner?”

 

Want? Yes, absolutely, “Nah, I can handle the old man.”

 

“Okay…” Ben doesn't sound convinced, “I'll leave my window open tonight if you get kicked out or you know… just want to hang out.”

 

He says hang out but he means sleep together, not necessarily sex but to wrap up in each other in the comfort of Ben’s soft bed.

 

Armie shrugs, “If you want.”

 

He realizes as the timer goes off that they will be endlessly circling each other like this if neither of them can make a move. They will be frozen. He should move, he should take a hold of Ben's wrist and pull him close.

 

But this is Ben, this isn't just some handsome boy at the academy, Ben wasn't just… he wasn't just a mouth, he wasn't just a body.

 

Ben was fucking everything and he wondered if he knew it. If he could tell by the way he always sat too close, the way he glared at would be suitors, the way he looked at him.

 

He was sure his father could tell. That's what had started this whole hair dying thing in the first place. It wasn't a huge rebellion but it was a small private war he was waging between himself and his father.

 

Ben’s hot large hands manhandled him until he was bent over the tub the warm jets of the shower head and the firm movements of Ben’s fingers washing the dye out. It was heavenly, even if the collar of his shirt was getting soaked. Hux even indulged and let Ben dry his hair.

 

“Okay so before you look I want you to know that it's amazing.”

 

“Oh god it's awful isn't it.”

 

“What did I just say?”

 

Armitage pushed Ben aside as stood in front of the bathroom mirror. It wasn't the electric hot pink that it was in the jar…

 

“I look like candy floss.”

 

“You look great.”

 

“Like candy floss.”

 

“Delicious.” Ben responded low and soft like he wasn't really supposed to hear him,”I'm not letting you dye it back gingersnap.”

 

“You can't keep calling me that now. You'll have to think of something new.” Hux pushed past him and out of the bathroom, pulling the wet shirt over his head.

 

“Sweetheart.”

 

Hux keeps moving to the bedroom like he hadn't heard him, like his entire body wasn't on fire, like his heart wasn't trying to escape.

 

“Armie.” Ben calls him and he turns shirt half off, cotton candy pink hair fluffy around his pale hair and a blush working its way down his exposed chest.

 

“You look really good. Like model good.”

 

“I look like a prostitute.”

 

“Yeah, but like a fun girlfriend experience one.” Ben tells him following him into his bedroom, “Like super expensive. The kind rich and powerful men just fall in love with all the time.”

 

“Worried some handsome, rich, billionaire is going to steal me away from this place?” Hux forces the joke, he's still topless and Ben’s eyes are still dragging across him like he wants to find out if he tastes like cotton candy.

 

“Course not.” Ben waves the idea away but he's getting very close, “I'd steal you away.” He lunges and wraps his arms around his middle pulling him violently down onto the bed.

 

The room is filled with peals of laughter as they roughly push and pull and squirm forgetting momentarily the weight what Ben said should really have.

 

It isn't until Ben has Hux trapped beneath him, panting for breath that the weight of everything, of every touch collapses down on him again. Ben is sitting on his hips and Hux is desperately thinking of terrible terrible things to keep from reacting positively to the weight of him.

 

Ben wiggles on top of him and for a moment he's sure he's doing it on purpose to get a very literal rise out of him but all he does is pull his phone out of his pocket.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Changing my lockscreen.” Ben smiles softly and it makes Hux just ache inside. He smiles up at Ben, tired and flushed and half naked as Ben takes the photo.

 

“You can't keep making me your lock screen Ben.”

 

“And why not?”

 

“This is why people think we're together.”

 

There's silence for a long moment and he regrets saying anything at all. Ben leans forward, supporting himself on one hand at Hux’s head. With the other hand he skims across the waist of Hux’s jeans.

 

Armitage thinks violently of the recycling, the compost heap, the litter box, anything and everything that isn't the feel of Ben’s hot large hands sliding across sensitive skin towards something and the weight of him, the looming magnificent presence of him.

 

If there had ever been a thought in Armitage Hux’s head that he wasn't gay Ben has destroyed them all. Somehow even going backwards in time, every possibly straight thought just evaporated from existence the moment Ben had reached out and picked up a chunk of his ginger hair and smiled.

 

_Need help finding homeroom gingersnap?_

 

“I'll change when you do.” Ben tells him, his too large smile, all crooked and gloriously off centre and just imperfect enough to be perfect, and rolls off of him holding up Hux’s cell phone.

 

Which is had pickpocketed.

 

Ben happily shows him the lockscreen, It's he and Ben wrapped in a single blanket at the bonfire last week. Hux likes that photo because while Hux is smiling at his phone for the picture Ben is looking at him and smiling.

 

“You should go.” He whispers in the quiet of the room.

 

“Ugh.” Ben sits up and stretches, whining the entire way back to the front door.

 

Ben pauses in the open door and grabs a chunk of the cotton candy pink hair, “You look great Armie. Don't believe a thing he says.”

 

He reaches up, his slender hand sliding along Ben’s larger, rougher hand, slowly dislodging him from the locks. Ben's eyes are dark and warm and he's all together too inviting.

 

They stand in silence for a moment longer and the moment says something, the way he looks at him means something. Hux can never tell what he means, just that it's important. It's like they speak two completely different languages.

 

It's broken whatever it is when Ben gets his hand back.

 

“I'll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah… tomorrow.”

 

Ben has been leaving his bedroom window open unlocked and open for him every night since the weather turned warm again. He has yet to take advantage of it. It had always felt like a weakness, like an escape.

\--

Hux suffers through a tirade of insults and slurs from his father and a dinner filled with angry glares before he's silently forced to spend the rest of the night playing cribbage with his grandfather, who fills the silences with talk of the pretty Parisian whores he'd seen during the war that hair a lot like that.

 

When he finally manages to get to the safety of his bedroom he collapses on the bed and remembers the perfect weight of Ben next to him.

 

Pulling out his phone he texts Ben.

 

_My grandfather just spent almost two hours telling me I looked like a Paris whore he knew in the war._

 

The response is lightning quick.

 

_Know know or just know?_

 

_Oh god please don't make me think about my grandfather’s sexual escapades. You are a horrible friend._

 

_I'm an excellent friend. Just come over Armie_

 

_Climb in your bedroom window like some star-crossed lover?_

 

_Aren't you?_

 

He lets the idea hang between them, heavier than everything.

 

_Do you want me to be?_

 

He presses send and holds his phone to his chest, eyes squeezed tight and heart hammering. What is he doing, what is he doing? This is a mistake.

 

Ben is his best friend, his only friend really and he is doing exactly what his father says he always does.

 

Ruining everything he touches.

 

His phone vibrates against his chest and he's afraid to look.

 

_Benny has sent you a photo_

 

Nervously he opens it afraid of what it is, it could be anything.

 

It's a picture of Ben in bed, the blankets open and inviting, Ben is in an unknown state of undress, broad shoulders and muscled chest on display, the cut of his hip is in view but nothing else. Just a comfortable looking bed and a tempting looking best friend.

 

He stares at the photo for too long because when he goes back to the chat Ben has bombarded him with apologies.

 

_Did you get it?_

 

_Are you coming?_

 

_God say something!_

 

_What have I done? How do I delete something off your phone?_

 

_Oh god I'm sorry Armie, I just_

 

_If you're not_

 

_We can forget everything that happened_

 

Hux types back slowly, nervous fingers shaking.

 

_It's a pretty good looking bed but how do I get into your room? You're on the second floor? Do you have a terrace for me to climb? Do you want me to recite The Bard?_

 

He presses send and stares at the three jumping dots telling him that Ben is writing something.

 

_I stole the rope ladder from the neighbor's treehouse months ago for you. Are you really coming?_

 

Hux sat up on his bed and tries to collect himself. Yes. Yes he's finally doing this. He may not be able to read Ben’s silences but he can read the text messages.

 

He pops in a mouthwash strip and takes a couple condoms off the string, just in case, and opens his bedroom window.

 

_I'll be there in ten._

 

\---

 

“Ben!” He yells as quietly as he can up at the open window. He had expected the rope ladder to be down and ready for him to climb by the time he got there.

 

Ben appears in the window a moment later, leaning out chin on elbow looking down at him.

 

“Ben-”

 

“Go on then.”

 

“What?”

 

“Where's my sonnet?”

 

Hux sighs heavily, sagging against the fence behind him.

 

“Are you serious? I'll get caught.” Armie hadn't actually prepared a sonnet for Ben. He had been too busy telling himself what a great idea this was. It had taken a lot to keep going. Because if the fact that he was so hyper aware of the condoms in his pocket he was about to thoroughly ruin the best relationship he'd ever been apart of, “help me up you ass “ he hisses pushing fluffy pink hair out of his eyes.

 

“Help me _in your_ ass more like.” Ben jokes smiling down at him.

 

He wonders if he can see the blush on his face from up there, it feels so hot on his cheeks that it might be a beacon.

 

“That'll be a little difficult if we aren't in the same room Benjamin.” He hisses and in a second the ladder unfurls itself from the window.

 

Hux climbs it with clenched teeth, trying to calm his nerves. He manages to get through the window and into Ben’s room without much hassle.

 

Ben is standing beside the bed in just some tight, dark coloured boxer briefs and it is utterly distracting, the way he stands there, arms wrapped loosely around himself.

 

“I still want my poem Armitage.” He whispers and the name has never sounded so sweet and intimate before. Like the world is shrinking around them, like he will be lost to some black hole outside if he doesn't latch onto Ben’s warmth.

 

He looks down at the space between them, stepping out of his shoes trying to think of some poem in the universe that could do Ben Solo any justice.

 

With a nervous tremor in his normally commanding voice he starts, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

 

Ben let's out a single short laugh and he can feel the heat of his blush spread across his body, shortening his breath as he works his shirt off.

  
“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight,For the ends of being and ideal grace.”

 

He folds his shirt and puts it on Ben’s desk, moving slowly towards the offered bed and the only person he can imagine wanting to share one with. Ben is dead silent watching him and it fuels his nervousness.

“I love thee to the level of every day's  
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” He takes off his jeans, folding them carefully beside his shirt trying to remember that he and Ben have gym together, that he's seen him without pants on before. It's no big deal.

  
“I love thee fre- freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”

 

He walks across the room in his briefs and his socks towards the bed. It feels like he walks for eternity, like a part of him will always be walking across this room. He stand directly in front of Ben, eyes sweeping across his shoulders because the look in his eyes is too intense.

  
“I love thee-” He’s stopped short in his recital when Ben lurches forward and presses his mouth against his. It’s rough and chaste and a little off but it’s their first kiss so it’s perfect.

 

When Ben pulls back he whispers, “I love you too.” Ben pulls him down into the bed and Hux marvels at the way Ben wraps them up like he expects the ice age to come upon them in the middle of the night, “I’m failing English but I love you too Armitage, Armie, my sweet gingersnap.” Ben wraps his arms around him tightly like he thinks he’ll escape.

 

Which is ridiculous because there is no where in the universe, known and unknown that he would rather be than in this bed with Ben whispering cotton candy themed pet names between his declarations of love.


End file.
